memeorandum: Shaquille O'Neal Endorses Chris Christie (John Avlon/The Daily Beast)

5:00 AM ET, October 28, 2013

Top Items:

Lou Reed, Velvet Underground Leader and Rock Pioneer, Dead at 71 — New York legend, who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, underwent a liver transplant in May — Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today.

Discussion: Ultimate Classic Rock, Hit & Run, NBCNews, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mashable, The Week, Gawker, Mediaite, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh, The Spectacle Blog, Firedoglake, The Mahablog, The Raw Story, Joe. My. God., Telegraph, Washington Monthly and Ed Driscoll

Ben Ratliff / New York Times:

Outsider Whose Dark, Lyrical Vision Helped Shape Rock ‘n’ Roll — Lou Reed, the singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had a major influence on generations of rock musicians, and who remained a powerful if polarizing force for the rest of his life …

Discussion: The Week, Washington Monthly and alicublog

CNN:
Rock legend Lou Reed dies at 71

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, KTLA 5, Scared Monkeys and Crooks and Liars

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:

60 Minutes confirms Benghazi is a real scandal, and you've been lied to — 60 Minutes had an absolutely devastating report on the Obama administration's failure to protect Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in Benghazi. — I'll post the video when available (update …

Discussion: Power Line and The Gateway Pundit

CBS News:

60 Minutes: Benghazi — The following script is from “Benghazi” which aired on Oct. 27, 2013. The correspondent is Lara Logan. Max McClellan, producer. — When Chris Stevens was killed in Benghazi, Libya, on the anniversary of September 11th last year, it was only the sixth …

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs

Wall Street Journal:

Obama unaware as U.S. spied on world leaders: officials. — The National Security Agency ended a program used to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other world leaders after an internal Obama administration review started this summer revealed to the White House the existence of the operations, U.S. officials said.

Discussion: The Hill, ABC News, Roger L. Simon, emptywheel, Taegan Goddard's … and AllThingsD

Louise Barnett / Telegraph:

Barack Obama 'approved tapping Angela Merkel's phone 3 years ago' — President Barack Obama was told about monitoring of German Chancellor in 2010 and allowed it to continue, says German newspaper — President Barack Obama was personally informed about secret US monitoring …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative and Atlas Shrugs

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:

Florida Blue CEO Refuses to Play Along with David Gregory's Concern Trolling — You hear it on the lips of every single one of the Republican talking heads on every single Sunday news show: President Obama promised that if you liked your healthcare, you could keep it and HE LIED!!! (cue sobbing) …

Discussion: Mediaite and Angry Bear

Wbastone / The Smoking Gun:

Meet The Florida Men Who Got Dressed Up As George Zimmerman And Trayvon Martin For Halloween — Buster — A pair of Florida men decided to celebrate Halloween this year by dressing up as George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, complete with blackface and blood-stained hoodie.

Discussion: Gawker, Weasel Zippers and Mediaite

John Avlon / The Daily Beast:

Shaquille O'Neal Endorses Chris Christie — The NBA superstar is endorsing New Jersey's Republican governor—and so are many other African Americans. John Avlon on what Christie can teach the GOP. — The big man of basketball is endorsing the big man of politics.

Discussion: Liberaland, Yahoo! News, Red Alert Politics and Politico

Paige Winfield Cunningham / Politico:

HHS says Obamacare Web problem on Sunday linked to Verizon Terremark — The Obama administration is attributing Sunday outages on HealthCare.gov to technical failures by Verizon Terremark, the company operating the federal data hub. — Visitors to the federal exchange were unable to access the website late Sunday.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys

David Rohde / The Atlantic Online:

Our Fear of Al-Qaeda Hurts Us More Than Al-Qaeda Does — The government's ever-expanding culture of secrecy is excessive, unnecessary, and destructive. — Three disclosures this week show that the United States is losing its way in the struggle against terrorism.

Discussion: AllGov and Daily Kos

Philip Elliott / Associated Press:

Clinton: Ideologues Reliable GOP Voters — Conservative ideologues are reliable voters who could threaten Democrat Terry McAuliffe's political chances, former President Bill Clinton warned Sunday as he joined his longtime buddy's campaign for Virginia governor.

Discussion: CNN, Politico and The Reaction